Environmental changes like high temperature or metal presence could be potentially stressful to plants and responsible for the amendment of plant metabolism, including the molecules belonging to the secondary metabolites. Despite some knowledge about the diversified functions of secondary metabolites in plants, e.g. as defenses and regulators, the detailed mechanisms and conditions for the formation of these compounds in plants still require in-depth research. A better understanding of these relations could be implemented mostly in agriculture and horticulture.

In recent years, the significance of secondary metabolites like phenolics or allantoin synthesized by plants is of great importance for industries like cosmetics, pharmacy, and the food sector. It means that finding ways of achieving higher content of such compounds could be useful to humans and potentially applicable on a larger scale. Currently, the role of secondary metabolites in the formation of natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) in plant cells is the subject of extensive research, as they are considered to be the third type of solvents in plant cells. It is supposed that some of the secondary metabolism substances, e.g. rutoside, can be included in the NADES matrix and become components of the liquid cellular environment. This indicates that secondary metabolites perform an additional physiological function in plant cells.

This Research Topic aims to gather the current knowledge on the role of secondary metabolites in plant physiology and the dependence of the metabolites’ content under various conditions. Authors are invited to submit different types of manuscripts, including original research papers, reviews, methods, and opinions related to the following subtopics (but not exclusively limited to):

- Changes in the level of the (selected) secondary metabolites in plants in response to abiotic/environmental stresses
- Role of the (selected) secondary metabolites in plant physiology
- Mechanisms of elevation of the (selected) secondary metabolites content in plants
- Role of the (selected) secondary metabolites derived from plants in the formation of NADES
- Physiological and biochemical studies of the (selected) secondary metabolites in plant responses to abiotic/environmental stresses

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Frontiers in Plant Science

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